About three months ago, Raynham’s Paul Monti received a Facebook link to a song. The lyrics told of a pickup truck — a pickup truck that belonged to a soldier who didn’t come home from war.

The link to the emotional country song was sent to him by the mother of a soldier who was killed with his son, Medal of Honor recipient Jared Monti, on a mountain in Afghanistan in 2006.

Marc Larocque

About three months ago, Raynham’s Paul Monti received a Facebook link to a song. The lyrics told of a pickup truck — a pickup truck that belonged to a soldier who didn’t come home from war.

The link to the emotional country song was sent to him by the mother of a soldier who was killed with his son, Medal of Honor recipient Jared Monti, on a mountain in Afghanistan in 2006.

Only after receiving a call from the songwriters on April 28 did Paul Monti discover that the chart-topping song, “I Drive Your Truck” performed by Lee Brice, was inspired by a comment the Gold Star father made to National Public Radio in 2011.

“It was so shocking when they called,” Monti said. “I had no clue. The writer says she wrote the song and it was inspired by me and Jared’s truck. It was pretty amazing.”

Originally, when asked about keeping Jared’s memory alive during a segment recorded around Memorial Day in 2011, Paul Monti told the NPR interviewer, “I drive his truck.” One of the principal songwriters, Connie Harrington, heard the interview in her truck one day, wrote down the touching quote on a Post-it note and then composed the country hit with colleagues Jimmy Yeary and Jessi Alexander.

On Monday, Paul Monti visited Brice and the songwriters at the “No. 1 Party” held by music promotion groups to celebrate “I Drive Your Truck” hitting the top of the Billboard country chart recently. Monti, who continues to drive his son’s black 2001 Dodge Ram, traveled to Nashville for the event.

“The song is a great tribute to all Gold Star families,” Monti said. “All the ones I know hang on to a car, a truck, a pair of boots, a CD, a shirt, whatever. It’s their connection to their lost one. The song has made a great impact on Gold Sar families.”

Monti, who described himself as a fan of all music genres, said that it was “a wonderful emotional experience” meeting Harrington, Yeary, Alexander and Brice.

“(Harrington) told me she wrote the song and it was inspired by Jared, his truck and me,” Monti said. “It was pretty amazing. The songwriters were all very emotional. (Lee Brice) said it meant a lot to him as well. He was very happy to be chosen to sing the song. He and I became quick friends.”

Monti said when he first encountered the song, and now still, it was tough to listen to because the lyrics had him breaking down in tears.

Brice sings in the song, “This thing burns gas like crazy, but that’s all right. People got their ways of coping, and I got mine. I drive your truck.” He continues,” I roll every window down, and I burn up every back road in this town. I find a field; I tear it up, ‘til all the pain’s a cloud of dust. Yeah, sometimes I drive your truck.”

Harrington and the other songwriters spent the last few years wondering where the truck quote came from, after hearing it briefly on the radio. But eventually Harrington tracked Monti down and got him on the phone recently.
“It’s a great example of divine intervention, just the way it all came about,” Monti said. “The day they finished writing the song, actually, was the anniversary of Jared’s death. The whole thing was just very emotional. The song had so much meaning. Not like any regular song that comes out, it was just very meaningful.”

Jared Monti was 30 when he was killed on June 21, 2006, in an effort to save fellow soldiers in the midst of an attack by enemy insurgents. Also dying that day along with Monti were fellow soldiers Patrick Lybert, whose mother sent Paul Monti a link to “I Drive Your Truck,” Brian Bradbury and Heathe Craig.

Paul Monti now organizes Operation Flags for Vets, which organizes volunteers to place flags at the graves of 56,000 veterans at the Massachusetts National Cemetery in Bourne. An Operation Flags for Vets placement is being held at the cemetery on May 25 ahead of Memorial Day.

Alexander, one of the songwriters, said that she feels “very blessed” to be a part of “I Drive Your Truck” and to have met Monti.

“When we wrote the song, when we got done, we thought, ‘Wow, it is amazing,’” Alexander said. “We thought if we could find the person who inspired the song. But we had no information. We searched for a good solid year and a half. It was just a dream come true to find Mr. Monti. The more we found out about the coincidences of Jared and the song, the more it seemed like we were a vessel for this song. It was a very special.”